The largest planned offshore wind project in the U.S. is 60 percent complete and is on track to begin delivering electricity early next year.
Officials with Dominion Energy, the utility that’s building the project named Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, said in an earnings call Friday that 134 foundations have been installed, along with all of the deepwater power cables. The project will have 176 foundations altogether. A newly built turbine installation vessel, the first American-flagged ship of its kind, is expected to arrive at the project site as early as this month, they said. It will be the vessel’s first project.
“This project remains consistent with the goal of securing American energy dominance and is part of our comprehensive, all-of-the-above strategy to affordably meet growing energy needs,” Dominion CEO Robert Blue told financial analysts on the call, echoing President Donald Trump’s energy priorities. “The project fabrication and installation are going very well, and CVOW continues to be one of the most affordable sources of energy for our customers.”
The project is a rare bright spot for the U.S. offshore wind industry, which has been battered by high construction costs and attacks from Trump. Some offshore wind developers have shelved plans for new projects in the face of the president’s decisions to halt new offshore wind leases, temporarily pause construction of a New York project and revoke an EPA permit for a third development planned off New Jersey.
But Dominion has consistently argued that the Virginia project is crucial to its strategy to meet growing electricity demand in the state, which is at the heart of the country’s data center boom. With a total capacity of 2,600 megawatts, the offshore wind facility is the largest of five projects under construction in the United States. Dominion estimates it will be capable of powering 660,000 homes. The utility is also pursuing plans for a 1,000-MW gas plant.
Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and other imports has increased the project’s cost, which Dominion said could rise to $10.9 billion in September, compared with its initial estimate of $10.8 billion. The utility said its total budget, after accounting for Trump’s tariffs, is expected to be $11.3 billion when the project is completed next year.
The pending arrival of the installation vessel, named the Charybdis, which was built in Brownsville, Texas, marks a major milestone for Dominion and the U.S. offshore wind industry more broadly.
Developers have struggled to book time with a limited number of vessels, many of which fly European flags. To comply with the Jones Act, a law that bars foreign vessels from traveling between U.S. ports, developers have had to employ a complicated barge system, where turbine components are staged onshore and floated on barges out to installation vessels. That will not be necessary with the Charybdis, which will be able to pick up turbine components from the Portsmouth Marine Terminal in Virginia, where the project is being staged, and transport them to the project area, where it will install them.
“We’re highly confident in the schedule” for completing the project, Blue told investors. “What really gives us confidence is the de-risking associated with this kind of installation.”
Dominion expects the first turbines to be installed later this year.
